When can I retire?
The answer is the year your invested assets grow to your FIRE number. Here's how to find it — and count down to it.
The answer is the year your invested assets grow to your FIRE number. Here's how to find it — and count down to it.
Two things set your retirement date: your FIRE number (annual expenses ÷ safe withdrawal rate) and how fast you get there (current investments, annual contributions, and expected real return). You can retire the year the second reaches the first.
It projects your portfolio forward — each year it grows by your real return and you add your contributions — and finds the first year the balance meets your FIRE number. Change any input and the date moves live. Example: at 32 with $50,000 invested, $24,000/year added, $50,000 of spending, 7% return and a 4% withdrawal rate, financial independence lands around age 52.
The iPhone app turns that date into a live home-screen widget that counts down and moves closer every time you update your investments — the part a spreadsheet can't do.
Runs in your browser — nothing is sent anywhere.
Find your FIRE number (annual expenses ÷ safe withdrawal rate), then project your investments forward with your yearly contributions and expected real return until the balance reaches that number. The year it does is your earliest retirement date.
Your FIRE number — typically about 25× your annual expenses at a 4% withdrawal rate. Spend $50,000 a year and you need roughly $1,250,000.
Yes. Higher contributions and a higher return both pull the date sooner; lower expenses reduce the target itself. The calculator shows the effect of each instantly.
See your number free above, then put the countdown on your iPhone home screen.